Families of fallen troops divided on admission of mistakes in Iraq Eyewitness News
Admissions yesterday by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are drawing strong and divided responses from families of soldiers killed in Iraq. Some criticized Bush for owning up to mistakes only after his poll numbers and public support for the war have reached all-time lows. Others say they forgive the president and continue to support the goal of establishing a stable Iraqi democracy. Julie Lawrence of Dighton lost her younger brother, Marine Lance Corporal John Vangyzen of Dighton, in Iraq nearly two years ago. She says Bush was correct to say he had learned not to use so much "tough talk" regarding the war. Lawrence also agrees with Blair's assessment that coalition forces underestimated the insurgency.
Blair to call for overhaul of UN BBC News
Bush and Blair admit making costly mistakes in ‘war on terrorism ... Asian Tribune
Forbes - Scotsman - ABC News - Sydney Morning Herald - all 1,197 related »

Baghdad market bombings kill 13 BBC News
Three bomb attacks on markets in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, have killed 13 people and wounded at least 60 others. The heaviest loss of life was in Nahda market, where at least nine people were killed and 30 were hurt. Another four people died in a bombing in the Hay al-Amil area and 13 were hurt in third market attack. The bombings came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki prepared to hold talks with rival groups about choosing defence and interior ministers. Mr Maliki has said he expects to fill the positions soon, and that improving security in Baghdad is one of his government's top priorities. Anti-US insurgents launch daily attacks in the capital and across Iraq, to destabilise the situation following the US-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein's government in 2003.

Busy market
The first blast of the day occurred at approximately 1000 local time (0600 GMT) in the Nahda area of the Iraqi capital. The area houses a busy market and one of Baghdad's main bus stations. Reporters at Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital said one woman was screaming that she had lost three sons in the Nahda attack. A bomb attack in the Hay al-Amil district killed four people and hurt 18, while another bombing in Al Bayaa market in southern Baghdad left 13 people injured. At least two other suspected bomb attacks, in addition to the three market blasts, occurred in a wealthy suburb of west Baghdad, injuring five people, reports say. Police also reported that a Sunni imam and his bodyguard were killed by gunmen in a drive-by shooting in the predominantly Shia Muslim city of Basra, in southern Iraq.

At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert BBC News
More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted the armed forces since the start of the 2003 Iraq war, the BBC has discovered. It comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country. During 2005 alone, 377 people deserted and are still missing. So far this year another 189 are on the run. Some 900 have evaded capture since the Iraq war started, official figures say. The Ministry claims it does not keep details of whether desertion is on the rise, but Labour MP John McDonnell told Parliament this week there had been a tripling in cases over the past three years. He was speaking in a debate about new laws which would make refusal to take part in the occupation of a foreign country punishable by a maximum life sentence in prison.It is unclear how many troops are deserting because they do not want to go to Iraq and how many are doing so because of personal reasons such as family problems. Lawyers who represent members of the military at courts martial say that they are increasingly being contacted by people who want advice about getting out of having to serve in Iraq, even if they do not want to go to the extreme of deserting.

'Illegal acts'
Justin Hugheston-Roberts was the solicitor for Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith who was sentenced to eight months in prison for refusing to follow orders in connection with a deployment to Iraq. He says: "As part of my day to day job, I am approached regularly by people who are seeking to absent themselves from service. There has been an increase, a definite upturn."There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from military personnel that they are demoralised by the continuing conflict in Iraq and the fact that, despite their best efforts, there's little improvement in the situation there. Ben Griffin was a member of the elite SAS. He told his commanding officer, earlier this year, that he was not prepared to return to Iraq because he said he saw American forces carrying out what he thought were illegal acts. He was allowed to leave the military and he now says: "I was disturbed by the general day-to-day attitude of the American troops. They treated Iraqis with contempt, not like human beings. They had a complete disregard for Iraqi lives and property." Mr Griffin would never have considered deserting but he says that his views are shared by many others in the British military. He told the BBC: "I can't speak for others but there's a lot of dissent in the Army about the legality of war and concerns that they're spending too much time there". He says Iraq is different to other conflicts because, in other operations, the main aim is to improve life for the local population and he believes that is not what has happened in Iraq. Mr Griffin says: "There's contempt for the locals. We don't even know how many have been killed." His advice to others is not to desert - but that if they have doubts, they should follow their conscience, speaking out if they think that the Iraq conflict is wrong. The Five Live Report begins with a live discussion at 1100 BST on BBC Radio Five Live and will be followed by a documentary at 1830 BST. correspondent
By Jonathan Charles, BBC world affairs

US helicopter comes down in Iraq BBC News
A US helicopter with two crew on board has crashed in western Iraq but it does not appear to have been brought down by insurgents, the US military says. The US Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra was undergoing a maintenance test flight when it came down in restive Anbar province, the statement said. A search and rescue operation is under way for the missing crew members. "The incident does not appear to be the result of enemy action," the military statement said. An investigation has been opened, it added.

US 'winding up' Iraq deaths probe BBC News
An investigation into claims that US marines may have deliberately killed civilians in Iraq is nearing its end, the Pentagon says. Official accounts from the Iraqi city of Haditha in November said 15 people were killed by a bomb and firefight. But reports in the US press say as many as 24 people may have died, and that murder charges may be in preparation. Moves are being made to prepare the public, perhaps for something shocking, says a BBC correspondent in Washington. A defence department spokesman said he believed the inquiry into Haditha - being carried out by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service - was nearing an end. But he would not say what investigators had found, and added that he did not expect an announcement on charges in the next few days.

Conflicting accounts
What took place in Haditha on 19 November last year is not clear. The US military said in statements issued after the incident that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed by the blast of a roadside bomb, or in a subsequent firefight between US marines and insurgents. But local Iraqis told a different story. The criminal investigation has been seeking to establish whether or not the marines killed civilians in cold blood. A 10-year-old girl told The Times of London this weekend that US soldiers deliberately shot and killed almost her entire family as she lay hiding in the corner. Iman Hassan described how she heard the dying groans of her grandfather, mother, father, two uncles and a young cousin. The Los Angeles Times has also reported that investigators have concluded that marines went on the rampage, killing unarmed civilians, including women and children, after a marine was killed by a roadside bomb. According to this account, up to a dozen marines were involved either in the incident, or covering it up afterwards. The LA Times says investigators are preparing to call for charges including murder, negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and filing a false report. The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says it certainly seems that public opinion in America is being prepared for the possibility that the investigators' findings will be shocking.

'Cold blood'
On Thursday, John Warner, chairman the Senate Armed Services Committee, said there were "established facts that incidents of a very serious nature did take place". The commander of the US marine corps, Gen Michael Hagee, flew to Iraq the same day and said the scenes and experiences faced by marines "can be numbing". "There is the risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of a human life, as well as bringing dishonour upon ourselves," he said. Last week John Murtha, a Democrat member of the House of Representatives and a retired marine said US troops in Haditha "overreacted because of the pressure on them. "They killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that's what the report is going to tell."

At least 7 killed in continuing violence:

Gunmen hurled three severed heads out of their car when they were driving through a village 20 km (12 miles) north of Baquba, a senior police source said, giving no further details.
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticl...oryId=MOU827267

===
Gunmen Kill Iraqi Tribal Leade and Bodyguard :

In other violence in Baghdad, two roadside bombs killed three people and wounded 17 others.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-05-28-voa9.cfm

===
Five U.S. troops killed in Iraq, 2 missing:

In Iraq two Marines are missing following Saturday's helicopter crash, while three soldiers and two Marines died in separate incidents Thursday and Friday.
http://tinyurl.com/j298g

===
At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert :

The news comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel from refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5024104.stm

===
World is blind to real situation in Iraq: activists:

An Iraqi journalist and a Japanese human rights activist said the public has a poor idea of the situation in Iraq and warned of an impending health catastrophe as more Iraqis contract cancer from exposure to depleted uranium shells used by the U.S. and Britain.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060527a8.html

===
Iranian-backed militia groups take control of much of southern Iraq:

Southern Iraq, long touted as a peaceful region that's likely to be among the first areas returned to Iraqi control, is now dominated by Shiite Muslim warlords and militiamen who are laying the groundwork for an Islamic fundamentalist government, say senior British and Iraqi officials in the area.
http://tinyurl.com/zdd37

===
Iraq will never be a party to any military aggression on Iran:

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said here Friday evening that Baghdad will never take part in any military aggression on Iran.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0...73115104258.htm

Saddam's trial defence restarts BBC News
The trial of Iraq's former President, Saddam Hussein, has resumed in the capital, Baghdad, with more defence witnesses taking the stand. Saddam Hussein and seven others are on trial over the deaths of 148 men from the Shia town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on the ex-leader. Both Saddam Hussein and his co-accused have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The defence stage of the trial began on 15 May and last week former foreign minister Tariq Aziz appeared in court.

'Fair trial'
Monday's first witness was a former Revolutionary Court lawyer, who appeared on behalf of one Awad al-Bandar, one of Saddam Hussein's co-accused. Mr al-Bandar was the chief judge when the court sentenced the 148 Shias to death over their alleged involvement in the presidential assassination attempt. "The court allowed defendants to commission a lawyer and if a defendant was not able to hire a lawyer then the court would appoint one for him. The court also was allowing all defendants to talk freely," the witness, speaking from behind a curtain to protect his identity, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying. "Mr al-Bandar took the humanitarian aspect into consideration, and he was fair and made all judgments according to law," he was quoted as saying. For his part Mr al-Bandar has insisted that the Dujail trial was fair, despite admitting that there was only one defence lawyer for all 148 accused and that the entire trial only lasted 16 days. During the prosecution stage of the trial of Saddam Hussein and his colleagues, prosecution lawyers argued that the Dujail trial had been a flawed show trial, in which children were amongst those convicted.

2 in CBS News Crew Killed in Violent Day in Iraq New York Times
Dozens of people were killed in Iraq today, including two British men working for CBS News, in a string of gunfire and bomb attacks that made it one of the worst surges of violence in days. CBS News said in a statement posted on its Web site that a crew of three embedded with the United States army's 4th Infantry Division patrolling in Baghdad came under attack this morning. The cameraman, Paul Douglas, and soundman, James Brolan, both British, were killed while the correspondent, Kimberly Dozier, an American, was critically injured.


In a series of other attacks, a bomb planted in a bus station killed 11 people and wounded 16 in the town of Khalis, northeast of Baghdad today; two people were killed and one injured in a roadside bomb in Baghdad, and a police patrol was struck by another roadside bomb in Baghdad that killed one officer and wounded three, according to the Iraqi police. At least three police officers and 16 civilians were killed in other drive-by shootings and car bomb attacks in the capital, they said. An American military statement said that the CBS news team was on a patrol in Baghdad with Iraqi and American soldiers when a car bomb exploded, also killing an Iraqi contractor and an American soldier. Six soldiers were injured. "This is a devastating loss for CBS News," Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and Sports, said in a statement on the CBS News Web site. CBS said the members of the news crew were working outside of their Humvee and were believed to have been wearing their protective gear. Before today's attack, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report that 69 journalists had been killed in hostile action while working in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003. Fifty of them were Iraqi. Roadside bombs are a primary killer of soldiers, and journalists, embedded with the American military to cover the war, have also been caught up in their potentially deadly force. In January, a co-anchor of ABC's evening newscast, Bob Woodruff, and a network cameraman suffered head wounds and other serious injuries in a large roadside bomb attack that struck the Iraqi military vehicle carrying them north of the capital. The first American reporter to be killed in the Iraq war was Michael Kelly, a 46-year old editor and columnist, who died when his Humvee came under fire in April, 2003, and then rolled into a canal after the driver, who also died, tried to take evasive action.
2 CBS crewmen killed, reporter hurt in Iraq attack CTV.ca
Two CBS journalists among four dead in Baghdad bomb Reuters AlertNet
ABC News - Scotsman - Houston Chronicle - SI.com - all 419 related »

At Least 46 killed Including 2 British Soldiers:

Twelve people were killed and 24 were wounded when a car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol detonated in Adhamiya district, northern Baghdad
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29750800.htm

===
6 Beheaded Bodies Found:

Police found six beheaded corpses wearing military uniforms in the small towns of Numaniya, Suwayra and Shihaimiya near Kut, 170 km southeast of Baghdad
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO850242.htm

===
Two British journalists killed in Baghdad:

A correspondent for American network CBS News was critically injured and her two-man British crew killed in one of the bloodiest days in Iraq for several weeks.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2201961,00.html

===
Two British Soldiers Killed:

Two Soldiers from the Queen's Dragoon Guards were killed in what appears to have been an attack by an improvised explosive device in Basra
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactShee...hFatalities.htm

===
'US is an expert in killing':

Despite US military denials, many Iraqis believe the killing of civilians at the hands of careless or angry American soldiers is common.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,...1940981,00.html

===
3 Minute Video:

Roger Water's - The Bravery of Being Out of Range:
http://www.gratefulchild.org/projects/gcweb/gc/html/video/

===
Iraq govt alarmed at Basra tension:

Factional struggles among ruling Shi'ites could flare into warfare over Iraq's vital southern oilfields, officials said on Monday as the new, Shi'ite-led government prepared to send a top-level peace mission to Basra
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAR949491.htm

===
`No question' Iraq killing was murder:

`Iraq's My Lai' hushed up: Critic Top brass to testify at Marines' probe
http://tinyurl.com/kesuq

Marine 'Massacre' in al-Haditha: Eye Witness Report

From Ali Hamdani in al-Haditha and Ned Parker in Baghdad

Iman Hassan, a 10-year-old Iraqi girl, told The Times how she had watched US marines kill her mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, four-year-old cousin and two uncles.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13414.htm

===
Iraq: The Hidden War

Images of Iraq dominate our TV news bulletins every night but in this film, Channel4 news presenter Jon Snow, questions whether these reports are sugar-coating the bloody reality of war under the US-led occupation

A Must Watch Video

Video Iraq: The Hidden Story shows the footage used by TV news broadcasts, and compares it with the devastatingly powerful uncensored footage of the aftermath of the carnage that is becoming a part of the fabric of life in Iraq.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13420.htm

US warning on Iraq deaths probe BBC News
The top military adviser to the US president says a probe into whether US marines deliberately killed a group of Iraqi civilians must not be prejudged. But Gen Peter Pace said there would be charges if marines were found to have killed the civilians in Haditha last November and tried to cover it up. The Pentagon has said investigations into the incident are nearly finished. Some US lawmakers have warned Haditha could be a more serious blow to US standing than the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Roadside bomb
The early official US accounts from Haditha said 15 people were killed by a bomb and firefight.But reports from Iraqi witnesses and in the US media allege that, after a roadside bomb had killed a colleague, marines went on a rampage and may have killed as many as 24 people. The Wall St Journal quoted civilian and military officials close to the investigations as saying evidence suggested the marines had killed the civilians, including women and children, without provocation. The officials told the newspaper several marines were likely to be charged with murder and others with attempting to cover up the incident. But Gen Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told US television that "it would be premature for me to judge the outcome". He said even if charges followed, it should not deflect from the "99.9% who are doing their job exactly the way the American people expect them to". But he added: "If the allegations as they are being portrayed in the newspapers turn out to be valid, then of course there'll be charges."

Extradition
There are two investigations pending - one into the events of 19 November and the other into whether there was a cover-up. The US military said in statements issued after the incident that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed by the blast of a roadside bomb, or in a subsequent firefight between US marines and insurgents. But local Iraqis told a different story. A 10-year-old girl told The Times of London last week that US soldiers deliberately shot and killed almost her entire family as she lay hiding in the corner. Democratic Congressman and former marine, Jim Murtha, has said he has been briefed by military officials and he believes civilians in Haditha were murdered and the incident was covered up. "They killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that's what the report is going to tell," he said. The Wall St Journal this week quoted US officials as saying they feared that new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki might demand the extradition of US personnel involved in the incident. Although bilateral agreements mean marines can only be tried under the US military system, the officials fear Mr Maliki might try to establish his tough credentials, sparking a standoff. The incident is being compared in the US to the Abu Ghraib jail scandal in which US military personnel abused Iraqi prisoners in 2003 and 2004. Last week, President George W Bush said the US had been paying for those events "for a long time".

Published: 08/23/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)


US Marines denied trial option
Agencies



San Diego: The Marine Corps has denied four Marines accused of killing an Iraqi civilian the option of going straight to trial, a decision that defence lawyers claimed was a sign that prosecutors do not have a solid case.

The four are among seven Marines and a sailor accused of kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi civilian in the town of Hamdania last spring.

All could face the death penalty.

The men had been scheduled for Article 32 hearings, where a commanding officer determines if there is probable cause for trial.


http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10062251.html

Another small bit of good news from the Pope news network at the Vatican. Hopeful no ransom was paid to these thugs and they just found a conscious

CRITICS OF PARTITIONING IRAQ ERR AT GREAT PERIL, ELAND ARGUES

With the mid-term U.S. elections looming next month, it's practically a given that the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, will not recommend that Iraq be decentralized and partitioned in order to avert a complete meltdown along ethnic and sectarian lines. This is extremely disheartening. Because Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis fear a strong central government, radical decentralization is "the only viable solution remaining for Iraq," writes Independent Institute Senior Fellow Ivan Eland in his latest op-ed.

Whereas each group fears that a central government would become an engine of oppression, U.S. critics of decentralizing and partitioning fear it might encourage the opposite. But those criticisms are unfounded, according to Eland.

"Many opponents of decentralization or partition use the example of the civil war during the break up of Yugoslavia," Eland continues. "Yet that is not the only model. Czechoslovakia and most of the Soviet Union broke up peacefully. Even in the case of Yugoslavia, when Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia separated from Yugoslavia, if the Serbs in those states had been allowed to affiliate with Serbia, a civil war might have been avoided."

"Partitioning: The Way Out of Iraq," by Ivan Eland (10/9/06)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1829

"La partición: la salida de Irak"
http://www.elindependent.org/articulos/article.asp?id=1829

The Way Out of Iraq: Decentralizing the Iraqi Government," by Ivan Eland http://www.independent.org/store/policy_re...etail.asp?id=16

PUTTING "DEFENSE" BACK INTO U.S. DEFENSE POLICY, by Ivan Eland http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=19

THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=54

Center on Peace & Liberty (Ivan Eland, director)
http://www.independent.org/research/copal/

IRAQI PRIME MINISTER UNWILLING TO DISARM MILITIAS

Sectarian violence in Iraq appears to be moving from bad to worse. Although a bloody bus bombing dominated the Iraqi news headlines this week, the most revealing indicator of future violence comes from the Iraqi government's top leadership: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'a, has refused to begin to dismantle the Shi'ite militias that have infiltrated government security forces, just as he has refused to help the U.S. campaign against the Mahdi Army in Sadr City.

The United States may not be able to stop the growing sectarian violence in Iraq, but it can probably temper it, according to Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty. Rather than continue to occupy the country and thereby train Shi'ite militia members that have infiltrated government forces, the United States should announce a date for removing troops from that country, Eland argues in his latest op-ed.

"That action would force the Shi'ite-Kurd dominated government to give the Sunnis some incentives for ending their insurgency and agreeing to a decentralization of Iraqi governance," Eland writes. "A rapid U.S. withdrawal would halt the training of Shi'ite forces for an expanded civil war and foil al-Maliki's plan to win it. Also, by threatening to remove U.S. backing from a government dominated by the Shi'a and Kurds, the U.S. would put pressure on those groups to reach a decentralization settlement that shared either oil revenues or oil wells with the Sunnis."

"The U.S. Should Stop Training Forces for the Expanding Iraqi Civil War," by Ivan Eland (10/16/06)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1833

"Los Estados Unidos deberían dejar de entrenar fuerzas para la creciente guerra civil iraquí"
http://www.elindependent.org/articulos/article.asp?id=1833

Also see, "The Reality and Legacy of the Iraq War" -- Featuring Ivan Eland and Mark Danner (Independent Institute Conference Center, Oakland, Calif., 10/17/06)
http://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=122

The Way Out of Iraq: Decentralizing the Iraqi Government," by Ivan Eland
http://www.independent.org/store/policy_re...etail.asp?id=16

Center on Peace & Liberty (Ivan Eland, director)
http://www.independent.org/research/copal/

Iraq: More than 77 killed as U.S. occupation grinds on:

A total of 46 bodies, with gunshot wounds and bearing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad since Saturday night, an Interior Ministry source said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO631031.htm

===
Two car bombs kill 20 in Baghdad:

Two near simultaneous car bombs killed 20 people and wounded 17 in a mixed neighborhood in northern Baghdad on Monday, an Interior Ministry source said.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2573055

===
Seven US troops killed in Iraq:

Seven more US troops have been killed in action in Iraq, bringing the number of American troops to have died this month to 57.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061016/wl_mi...ll_061016152611

===
Brother of Saddam prosecutor killed:

The brother of the top prosecutor in the second trial of Saddam Hussein was shot dead in front of his wife at his home in the capital Monday
http://tinyurl.com/y2l92t

===
Saddam Says Iraq 'Liberation Is at Hand':

Saddam Hussein issued an open letter Monday, saying Iraq's "liberation is at hand" and calling for an end to sectarian killings.
http://tinyurl.com/ul7qc

===
Iraq rebels say they will only negotiate with US:

Iraqi nationalist insurgents have told AFP they have begun talks with US forces, after a weekend meeting of Sunni tribal sheikhs called for the restoration of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061016/wl_mideast_afp/iraq

===
Top US inquiry to call for Iraq policy change :

US policy in Iraq is not working and George Bush should consider radical changes, according to a top-level panel backed by the president.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1923778,00.html

THE KILLING FIELDS OF IRAQ - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 16): The Lancet report authors, being serious scientists, concede that counting the dead in a country turned into a war zone is a difficult enterprise, but even the lowest figure in their estimate, more than 300,000 dead, is shocking enough.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...ng_fields_iraq/

BUSH PLAYS POLITICS WITH IRAQI DEAD - JOHN NICHOLS (MADISON CAPITAL TIMES, WISCONSIN, OCTOBER 17/COMMON DREAMS): From the start of his miserable misadventure, Bush has talked up the wrong threats, imagined the wrong successes and embraced the wrong strategies. Now he tells us that others are wrong about the damage done by his miscalculations.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1017-23.htm

CHRISTIANS IN THE CROSSFIRE: PRO-WAR EVANGELICALS HAVE MADE EXILES -- AND MARTYRS -- OF IRAQI BELIEVERS - DOUG BANDOW (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/article.html

WHERE HAVE ALL THE DOCTORS GONE?: THE COLLAPSE OF IRAQ'S HEALTH CARE SERVICES - DAVID WILSON (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15)
http://www.counterpunch.org/wilson10162006.html

THE END OF PRESS FREEDOM IN IRAQ? - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 17): al-Sharqiya Television employs 400 reporters, administrators and technicians. Al-Zaman newspaper employs 150 reporters, 160 technicians and administrators in all of its Iraq-based operations. The parliament warned these two media organs against repeating their "unacceptable coverage."
http://www.juancole.com/2006/10/end-of-pre...q-al-zaman.html

IRAQ: UNEMPLOYMENT AND VIOLENCE INCREASE POVERTY - REUTERS (OCTOBER 17)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/I...f922a039cad.htm

U.S. MAY HAVE WEEKS, NOT MONTHS, TO AVERT CIVIL WAR, ADVISER WARNS - JAMES STERNGOLD (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 18): "There's a sense among many people now that things in Iraq are slipping fast and there isn't a lot of time to reverse them," said Larry Diamond, one of a panel of experts advising the Iraq Study Group, which is preparing a range of policy alternatives for President Bush.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable

BARNEY AND BAGHDAD - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 18): What were seeing in Iraq seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

ETHNIC STRIFE: DIVISIONS DEEPEN IN IRAQ - JSG (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, OCTOBER 16): Iraq's parliament passed a new federalism law last week, paving the way for Shiites to form a powerful, self-ruling province in the south of the country. If the law holds, critics worry the war-torn country could see a spike in intra-ethnic violence.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,442867,00.html

CORDESMAN: IRAQI CIVIL WAR - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 17): In a report released yesterday titled "Is there a civil war in Iraq?", CSIS analyst Anthony Cordesman gives a good sense of the scope of this violence and its political meaning.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...sman_iraqi.html

FUN, FUN, FUN TILL DADDY TOOK THE IRAQ WAR AWAY: BUSH'S IRAQ DISASTER IS TAKING THE GOP DOWN, AND HIS FATHER'S OLD PAL JAMES BAKER IS ABOUT TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, OCTOBER 17): Left unspoken in Baker's report is the obvious larger point: The U.S. mission has failed, and once we do everything we can to prevent Iraq from descending into a hellish civil war, we should get out.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2006/1...aker/print.html

STOP TRAINING IRAQIS FOR CIVIL WAR - IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 17): A rapid U.S. withdrawal and decentralization of Iraqi governance is the last hope to avoid a full-fledged civil war, because the three groups don't want to live together and are frightened that a strong central government could be used to oppress the group or groups that don't control it.
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=9874

TRAINING REGIMEN: PROBLEMS AFFLICT U.S. ARMY PROGRAM TO ADVISE IRAQIS; UNTESTED AMERICANS SHIP OUT TO MENTOR FOREIGN FORCES; MILITARY PLANS CHANGES; A FEW HOURS OF ARABIC LESSONS - GREG JAFFE (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 18)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1161136052...ays_us_page_one
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

BRING IRAQI FORCES UP TO SPEED: IF THE U.S. WON'T SEND MORE TROOPS TO STABILIZE THE COUNTRY, IT SHOULD ASSIGN MORE OF ITS BEST OFFICERS TO TRAIN IRAQIS - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 18)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail

IRAQ: LEAVE OR BE FORCED OUT - GARETH PORTER (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 17): Our troops are doing no good to anyone as sitting targets for both sides.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1..._forced_out.php

BUSH - NOBLE, BUT MISTAKEN - BARY RUBIN (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 17): What Bush should have done regarding Iraq -- and it isn't too late, though he seems determined to compound his errors -- is to set a timetable for withdrawal, without a detailed public commitment but with a clear message to Iraq's government that it must take responsibility for its own defense.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter

CHENEY: "GENERAL OVERALL SITUATION" IN IRAQ IS GOING "REMARKABLY WELL" - (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 17)
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/17/cheney-rush/

IRAQ A HELLUVA MESS: BAKER - (DAILY TELEGRAPH, OCTOBER 18): Former US secretary of state James Baker was visibly shocked when he last visited Iraq, and said the country was in a "helluva mess", the BBC reported today.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5006506,00.html

IRAQ FOLLOWS VIETNAM MODEL - MOLLY IVINS (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...amization_iraq/

OFFICIAL SORRY FOR 'STUPIDITY' COMMENT - ASSOCIATED PRESS (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 22): A senior U.S. diplomat apologized Sunday night for saying U.S. policy in Iraq displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity." A day after his remarks in an interview were broadcast by the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Alberto Fernandez issued a written apology through the State Department press office. "Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," said Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeas...comment?mode=PF

STATE OFFICER REPORTEDLY CRITICIZES US IRAQ POLICY IN AL-JAZEERA INTERVIEW - ECCENTRIC STAR, OCTOBER 22)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di..._officer_r.html

A PUBLIC DIPLOMACY OFFICIAL [FERNANDEZ] WHO MAY SOON BE DETAILED TO THE THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY - (KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, OCTOBER 22): The Aljazeera interviewer said, "I, of course, appreciate your usual candor Mr. Fernandez." The audience, perhaps, did as well. Note: Mr. Elliott's blog contains other recent items relating to public diplomacy.
http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/

THE FERNANDEZ PROBLEM - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 22): Remarks on al-Jazeera by Alberto Fernandez that America had been "arrogant" and "stupid" in Iraq have already generated enormous controversy. The State Department, and especially Karen Hughes, must back Alberto Fernandez to the hilt in this StupidStorm. The fact is that Fernandez has been single-handedly carrying the American flag on the Arab broadcast media for years.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...ernandez_p.html

"ARROGANCE AND STUPIDITY": THE FALLOUT FROM AN HONEST STATEMENT - (MOUNTAIN RUNNER, OCTOBER 22)
http://www.mountainrunner.us/2006/10/arrogance_and_s.html

IRAQ: A RARE VOICE OF REASON IN D.C. - CHRISTOPHER DICKEY (SHADOWLAND JOURNAL, OCTOBER 22): "I hope Alberto Fernandez isn't in too much trouble. The director of public diplomacy for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Fernandez has been for several years now the only credible voice defending what is an almost entirely discredited policy in the Arab world."
http://christopherdickey.blogspot.com/2006...ason-in-dc.html

AL JAZEERA'S PET STATE DEPARTMENT MOUTHPIECE - (MICHELLE MALKIN BLOG, OCTOBER 22)
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006172.htm

SEND A MESSAGE -- REMOVE ALBERTO FERNANDEZ FROM PR DUTIES AT STATE DEPARTMENT - SMAGAR (REDSTATE, VA, OCTOBER 22)
http://breakingnews.redstate.com/blogs/sma...tate_department

ALBERTO FERNANDEZ, ANOTHER STATE DEPARTMENT DISASTER IN THE KAREN HUGHES MOLD - BY BEILA RABINOWITZ & WILLIAM A. MAYER (E&P PIPELINENEWS.ORG, OCTOBER 23): In his apparent zeal to develop empathy and kinship among the Islamists he must sometimes deal with, Gonzalez has repeatedly made the mistake of not considering how his associations might be interpreted by them or by others who may well feel that his mere presence might well constitute an official seal of approval.
http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page...andez102306.htm

THIS GUY [FERNANDEZ] WORKS FOR US? - (LOOSE GRAVEL, OCTOBER 22): "I think someone needs to be reassigned as ambassador to Antarctica."
http://loosegravel.townhall.com/g/a1142c1c...a0-d21fe1207eb0

A DIFFERENT TACTIC FOR RICE: SPEAKING SOFTLY WITHOUT THE STICK - THOM SHANKER (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 23): Rice was able to contend that important progress had been made toward a new "nonproliferation regime," whose core would be a vastly enhanced regional system of monitoring and inspecting cargo to and from North Korea. "We could be -- probably will be -- in this regime for a long time," Ms. Rice said. While "it's quite important what happens on Day 1," she said, her public diplomacy tried to manage expectations about what was and was not possible from her first foreign lobbying campaign for the sanctions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/world/as...agewanted=print

PLANTED PROPAGANDA: IT'S A BAD IDEA, WHETHER OR NOT IT VIOLATES REGULATIONS. TOO BAD THE PENTAGON WON'T SAY THAT - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 23): The government shouldn't be in the business of covertly peddling propaganda -- especially in a war based on the notion of seeking to export democratic values such as, say, a free press.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2200703_pf.html

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN IRAQ - JOAN VENNOCHI (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 22): CNN was right to broadcast a tape showing 10 separate sniper attacks in Iraq, even if insurgents supplied it.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...in_iraq?mode=PF

CENSORING IRAQ: WHY ARE THERE SO FEW REPORTERS WITH AMERICAN TROOPS IN COMBAT? DON'T BLAME THE MEDIA - MICHAEL YON (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 30): If our military cannot win the easy media battles with writers who are unashamed to say they want to win the war, there is no chance of winning the hearts and minds of Afghans and Iraqis, and both wars will be lost.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/844nigml.asp

POLL FINDS IRAQ YOUTH WANT U.S. TO LEAVE - KATHERINE SHRADER, ASSOCIATED PRESS (YAHOO! NEWS, OCTOBER 22): In this poll, nine out of 10 young Iraqi Arabs said they see the U.S. and allied forces in Iraq as an occupying force. The majority of Iraqi youth in Arab regions -- half in Baghdad and Kirkuk -- also believe the security situation and the violence levels would improve if the U.S. and its allies left immediately. On the contrary, 70 percent of young Iraqi Kurds see the multinational forces as a liberating force.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061022/ap_on_...zazkxBHNlYwN0bQ

NUMBER CRUNCHING: TAKING ANOTHER LOOK AT THE LANCET'S IRAQ STUDY - FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, OCTOBER 20): Here's the key question: Had it been known ahead of time that invading Iraq would result in the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis (or 50,000, or pick your own threshold number), would the president have made -- would Congress have voted to authorize, would any editorial writer or public figure have endorsed -- a decision to go to war?
http://www.slate.com/id/2151926/

THREE MILLION UPROOTED IRAQIS FACE "BLEAK FUTURE, UNHCR SAYS - REUTERS (OCTOBER 22): More than three million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes to other areas of Iraq and to neighboring countries are facing what the United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) describes as a "very bleak future" after the agency's budget for offices across the region was halved for the coming year.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/I...7a33d29b706.htm

IRAQ: CHRISTIAN MINORITY SEEKS HAVEN FROM VIOLENCE - HEATHER MAHER (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 19)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...5bd1346efc.html

INTO THE ABYSS OF BAGHDAD - PATRICK J. MCDONNELL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 23): Every day the corpses pile up in the capital like discarded furniture -- at curbside, in lots, in waterways and sewer lines; every day the executioners return.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...-home-headlines

WHAT HAS INVASION UNLEASHED IN IRAQIS? - ADIL E. SHAMOO (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 22): The invasion and its aftermath caused such a major trauma to the people of Iraq that now some have become self-destructive.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

THE REAL 'NEW IRAQ' - COLBERT I. KING (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 21): There is a new Iraq emerging before our eyes. It is an Iraq that torments Christians, that indulges in unrelenting sectarian bloodbaths, that cheers for Hezbollah, that is no more a friend to Israel than is Iran, all despite the lies sold to the White House and Pentagon by self-serving, power-hungry Iraqi expatriates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2001363_pf.html

THE AMERICAN WAY OF GORE: CASUALTIES OF WAR: DEAD, BURIED AND DISCARDED PIERRE TRISTAM (CANDIDE'S NOTEBOOKS, OCTOBER 21/COMMON DREAMS): Iraqis are decor to the American way of gore, fillers for the new mass graves.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1021-22.htm

US NEGOTIATING WITH IRAQI INSURGENCY - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 20)
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...gotiating_.html

A DIFFERENT WAR: PREVIOUS WARS WERE LESS AMBIGUOUS - CLIFFORD D. MAY (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 20): In Iraq American political leaders seem not yet to fully comprehend what they are up against; much less have they begun to respond effectively.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmMzZ...mYyNWU2YmZiOGM=

THE UGLY TRUTH - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 20): While the president has been talking about adjusting tactics in Iraq lately, he can't accept that his strategy may need changing -- or even his goal. At least not yet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2000748_pf.html

WAR TORN - PETER BEINART (NEW REPUBLIC, OCTOBER 30): For every day that goes by without an honest debate about Iraq, defeat becomes more certain. The good news is that, in a few weeks, that debate will finally begin.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061030&s=trb103006

THE GENTEEL REVOLT THAT IS REMAKING US POLICY ON IRAQ: REPUBLICAN VETERANS PUSH FOR END TO INTERVENTIONIST APPROACH - JULIAN BORGER (GUARDIAN, OCTOBER 21): Eight options being considered by US/UK regarding Iraq.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1928058,00.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.juancole.com/2006/10/break-up-o...ns-mideast.html

5 WAYS TO PREVENT IRAQ FROM GETTING EVEN WORSE: STAYING THE COURSE IS NO LONGERAN OPTION. THE BEST SCENARIO FOR THE U.S. TO DO SOME GOODBEFORE IT PULLS OUT - APARISIM GHOSH (TIME, OCTOBER 22): The main question is, How long will it take for military officials in Iraq and policymakers in Washington to concede that the whole enterprise is closer to failure than success?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1549305,00.html

QUESTIONS TO GUIDE AN EXIT POLICY - GEORGE F. WILL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): "Stay the course" is a policy stamped with an expiration date. The president says the war in Iraq will be "just a comma" in history books, but by Nov. 26, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with the Study Group's recommendations due, the comma will have lasted as long as U.S. involvement in World War II.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2100819_pf.html

BLOWING IN THE WIND - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 22): The way the Bush team is stage-managing the president's supposed change of heart about "staying the course" is unfair to the Americans who have taken him at his word that real progress is being made in Iraq -- a dwindling but still significant number of people, some of whom have sons and daughters serving in the conflict.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/opinion/...agewanted=print

CHANGE COURSE IN IRAQ: PRESIDENT BUSH MUST REVISE THE U.S. STRATEGY FOR STABILIZING THE COUNTRY - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): There remains a chance the government could gain control over the country. As long as that prospect exists, the United States has a moral obligation and a practical interest to remain in Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2100832_pf.html

GOING IT ALONE LOSES ITS APPEAL - ELIZABETH SULLIVAN (CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, OCTOBER 22/COMMON DREAMS): U.S. officials and Iraqis must do much more to reach out and coordinate with all in the neighborhood if they want to shore up the possibility of meaningful political compromise in Iraq and counter the religious extremists, warlords, gangsters and beheaders who otherwise threaten to seize control.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1022-25.htm

HECK OF A JOB, MALIKI! - TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, OCTOBER 20): What you have, practically speaking, is the worst of both worlds: a government that lacks legitimacy and is incapable, not to say unwilling, to meet the needs of the President and his advisors.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=131070

HECK OF A JOB, MALIKI! - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 21): It is not surprising that there is a lot of talk about a coup being planned to oust Iraqi PM Maliki.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ21Ak02.html

IS PRESIDENT FINALLY OPENING HIS MIND TO IRAQ EXIT PLAN? - CLARENCE PAGE (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 20): Whether in war or in peace, Iraq's future ultimately must be decided by Iraqis. As that happens, the best thing that Americans can do is to declare victory and get out of the way.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OUR DEFEAT IN IRAQ - WILLIAM ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 20): America will be humbled when we leave Iraq. Let's recognize this is the bitter pill we must swallow now.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...our_defeat.html

IRAQ: AN HONEST EXIT - SUZANNE NOSSEL (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): In short, if we pull out it will not be because the mission is accomplished, or because we can rest easily or at all about Iraq's future. Instead, it will be because nothing we try has worked, and because after four years we're not sufficiently convinced that our presence is doing more good than harm.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-noss...it_b_32268.html

HISTORY WARNS US TO WITHDRAW: THE TET OFFENSIVE HELPED TO TURN US OPINION AGAINST THE VIETNAM WAR - SAUL DAVID (INDEPENDENT, UK/COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 22): The refusal by the President and Tony Blair to admit the failure of their Iraq policy by ordering a speedy withdrawal is entirely consistent with the history of similar foreign interventions.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1022-24.htm

STARK LESSONS FROM IRAQ - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): The extent to which U.S. forces were unprepared for insurgency and sectarian warfare in Iraq has become painfully apparent. The lessons they are learning -- which have become prohibitively costly for Americans and Iraqis -- must never again be forgotten.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2001662_pf.html

IF WE HAD KNOWN THEN... - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 22): All we can be sure of in Iraq is that the stakes once again are liberty and decency vs. tyranny and terror -- that we are fighting an enemy that feeds on weakness and expects us to lose heart -- and that Americans for generations to come will remember whether we flinched.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...wn_then?mode=PF

IS IRAQ ANOTHER VIETNAM? IT IS ALREADY LOST - ROBERT FREEMAN (COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 22): The War has stripped the U.S. of incalculable moral standing in the world, increasing its enemies, driving away allies, and in the process making the now larger war on terror all the more unwinnable.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1022-26.htm

TET? NOT YET: VICTORY BY ASSOCIATION - JAMES S. ROBBINS (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 20): The most important difference between Tet and any similar (or dissimilar) situation today is that the insurgents in Iraq know what the North Vietnamese did not know, at least at first -- they do not have to actually win a battle to achieve a strategic victory.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MThkM...2Q1YmNiOTBhMTE=

BUSH FINALLY UTTERS THE "V" WORD AS IRAQ "MISSION" DETERIORATES, UNACCOMPLISHED - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, OCTOBER 19)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...&entry_id=10022

FOREIGN POLICY BLINDNESS - IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 19): One can think of times when the rude shock of the kind that a defeat in Iraq would inflict could have the salutary effect of reviving the best in the American tradition -- that of a libertarian, socially-conscious people who would once again welcome, in the words engraved on the Statue of Liberty, "the huddled masses yearning to be free."
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1...y_blindness.php

http://alternet.org/story/43045/

Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted October 16, 2006.


Even as Iraq verges on splintering into a sectarian civil war, four big oil companies are on the verge of locking up its massive, profitable reserves, known to everyone in the petroleum industry as "the prize." Tools
Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series. Go here to read the second installment.

Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set.

The Iraqi government faces a December deadline, imposed by the world's wealthiest countries, to complete its final oil law. Industry analysts expect that the result will be a radical departure from the laws governing the country's oil-rich neighbors, giving foreign multinationals a much higher rate of return than with other major oil producers and locking in their control over what George Bush called Iraq's "patrimony" for decades, regardless of what kind of policies future elected governments might want to pursue.

Iraq's energy reserves are an incredibly rich prize. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, "Iraq contains 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the second largest in the world (behind Saudi Arabia), along with roughly 220 billion barrels of probable and possible resources. Iraq's true potential may be far greater than this, however, as the country is relatively unexplored due to years of war and sanctions." For perspective, the Saudis have 260 billion barrels of proven reserves.

Iraqi oil is close to the surface and easy to extract, making it all the more profitable. James Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum, points out that oil companies "can produce a barrel of Iraqi oil for less than $1.50 and possibly as little as $1, including all exploration, oilfield development and production costs." Contrast that with other areas where oil is considered cheap to produce at $5 per barrel or the North Sea, where production costs are $12-16 per barrel.

And Iraq's oil sector is largely undeveloped. Former Iraqi Oil Minister Issam Chalabi (no relation to the neocons' favorite exile, Ahmed Chalabi) told the Associated Press that "Iraq has more oil fields that have been discovered, but not developed, than any other country in the world." British-based analyst Mohammad Al-Gallani told the Canadian Press that of 526 prospective drilling sites, just 125 have been opened.

But the real gem -- what one oil consultant called the "Holy Grail" of the industry -- lies in Iraq's vast western desert. It's one of the last "virgin" fields on the planet, and it has the potential to catapult Iraq to No. 1 in the world in oil reserves. Sparsely populated, the western fields are less prone to sabotage than the country's current centers of production in the north, near Kirkuk, and in the south near Basra. The Nation's Aram Roston predicts Iraq's western desert will yield "untold riches."

Iraq also may have large natural gas deposits that so far remain virtually unexplored.

But even "untold riches" don't tell the whole story. Depending on how Iraq's petroleum law shakes out, the country's enormous reserves could break the back of OPEC, a wet dream in Western capitals for three decades. James Paul predicted that "even before Iraq had reached its full production potential of 8 million barrels or more per day, the companies would gain huge leverage over the international oil system. OPEC would be weakened by the withdrawal of one of its key producers from the OPEC quota system." Depending on how things shape up in the next few months, Western oil companies could end up controlling the country's output levels, or the government, heavily influenced by the United States, could even pull out of the cartel entirely.

Both independent analysts and officials within Iraq's Oil Ministry anticipate that when all is said and done, the big winners in Iraq will be the Big Four -- the American firms Exxon-Mobile and Chevron, the British BP-Amoco and Royal Dutch-Shell -- that dominate the world oil market. Ibrahim Mohammed, an industry consultant with close contacts in the Iraqi Oil Ministry, told the Associated Press that there's a universal belief among ministry staff that the major U.S. companies will win the lion's share of contracts. "The feeling is that the new government is going to be influenced by the United States," he said.

During the 12-year sanction period, the Big Four were forced to sit on the sidelines while the government of Saddam Hussein cut deals with the Chinese, French, Russians and others (despite the sanctions, the United States ultimately received 37 percent of Iraq's oil during that period, according to the independent committee that investigated the oil-for-food program, but almost all of it arrived through foreign firms). In a 1999 speech, Dick Cheney, then CEO of the oil services company Halliburton, told a London audience that the Middle East was where the West would find the additional 50 million barrels of oil per day that he predicted it would need by 2010, but, he lamented, "while even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow."

Chafing at the idea that the Chinese and Russians might end up with what is arguably the world's greatest energy prize, industry leaders lobbied hard for regime change throughout the 1990s. With the election of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in 2000 -- the first time in U.S. history that two veterans of the oil industry had ever occupied the nation's top two jobs -- they would finally get the "greater access" to the region's oil wealth, which they had long lusted after.

If the U.S. invasion of Iraq had occurred during the colonial era a hundred years earlier, the oil giants, backed by U.S. forces, would have simply seized Iraq's oil fields. Much has changed since then in terms of international custom and law (when then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz did in fact suggest seizing Iraq's Southern oil fields in 2002, Colin Powell dismissed the idea as "lunacy").

Understanding how Big Oil came to this point, poised to take effective control of the bulk of the country's reserves while they remain, technically, in the hands of the Iraqi government -- a government with all the trappings of sovereignty -- is to grasp the sometimes intricate dance that is modern neocolonialism. The Iraq oil grab is a classic case study.

It's clear that the U.S.-led invasion had little to do with national security or the events of Sept. 11. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill revealed that just 11 days after Bush's inauguration in early 2001, regime change in Iraq was "Topic A" among the administration's national security staff, and former Terrorism Tsar Richard Clarke told 60 Minutes that the day after the attacks in New York and Washington occurred, "[Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq." He added: "We all said … no, no. Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan."

On March 7, 2003, two weeks before the United States attacked Iraq, the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told the U.N. Security Council that Saddam Hussein's cooperation with the inspections protocol had improved to the point where it was "active or even proactive," and that the inspectors would be able to certify that Iraq was free of prohibited weapons within a few months' time. That same day, IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei reported that there was no evidence of a current nuclear program in Iraq and flatly refuted the administration's claim that the infamous aluminum tubes cited by Colin Powell in making his case for war before the Security Council were part of a reconstituted nuclear program.

But serious planning for the war had begun in February of 2002, as Bob Woodward revealed in his book, Plan of Attack. Planning for the future of Iraq's oil wealth had been under way for longer still.

In February of 2001, just weeks after Bush was sworn in, the same energy executives that had been lobbying for Saddam's ouster gathered at the White House to participate in Dick Cheney's now infamous Energy Task Force. Although Cheney would go all the way to the Supreme Court to keep what happened at those meetings a secret, we do know a few things, thanks to documents obtained by the conservative legal group JudicialWatch. As Mark Levine wrote in The Nation($$):


… a map of Iraq and an accompanying list of "Iraq oil foreign suitors" were the center of discussion. The map erased all features of the country save the location of its main oil deposits, divided into nine exploration blocks. The accompanying list of suitors revealed that dozens of companies from 30 countries -- but not the United States -- were either in discussions over or in direct negotiations for rights to some of the best remaining oilfields on earth.

Levine wrote, "It's not hard to surmise how the participants in these meetings felt about this situation."

According to the New Yorker, at the same time, a top-secret National Security Council memo directed NSC staff to "cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered melding two seemingly unrelated areas of policy." The administration's national security team was to join "the review of operational policies towards rogue states such as Iraq and actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields."

At the State Department, planning was also underway. Under the auspices of the "Future of Iraq Project," an "Oil and Energy Working Group" was established. The full membership of the group -- described by the Financial Times as "Iraqi oil experts, international consultants" and State Department staffers -- remains classified, but among them, according to Antonia Juhasz's "The Bush Agenda," was Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, who would serve in Iyad Allawi's cabinet during the period of the Iraqi Governing Council, and later as Iraq's oil minister in 2005. The group concluded that Iraq's oil "should be opened to international oil companies as quickly as possible after the war."

But the execs from Big Oil didn't just want access to Iraq's oil; they wanted access on terms that would be inconceivable unless negotiated at the barrel of a gun. Specifically, they wanted an Iraqi government that would enter into production service agreements (PSAs) for the extraction of Iraq's oil.

PSAs, developed in the 1960s, are a tool of today's kinder, gentler neocolonialism; they allow countries to retain technical ownership over energy reserves but, in actuality, lock in multinationals' control and extremely high profit margins -- up to 13 times oil companies' minimum target, according to an analysis by the British-based oil watchdog Platform (PDF).

As Greg Muttit, an analyst with the group, notes:


Such contracts are often used in countries with small or difficult oilfields, or where high-risk exploration is required. They are not generally used in countries like Iraq, where there are large fields which are already known and which are cheap to extract. For example, they are not used in Iran, Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, all of which maintain state control of oil.

In fact, Muttit adds, of the seven leading oil producing countries, only Russia has entered into PSAs, and those were signed during its own economic "shock therapy" in the early 1990s. A number of Iraq's oil-rich neighbors have constitutions that specifically prohibit foreign control over their energy reserves.

PSAs often have long terms -- up to 40 years -- and contain "stabilization clauses" that protect them from future legislative changes. As Muttit points out, future governments "could be constrained in their ability to pass new laws or policies." That means, for example, that if a future elected Iraqi government "wanted to pass a human rights law, or wanted to introduce a minimum wage [and it] affected the company's profits, either the law would not apply to the company's operations or the government would have to compensate the company for any reduction in profits." It's Sovereignty Lite.

The deals are so onerous that they govern only 12 percent of the world's oil reserves, according to the International Energy Agency. Nonetheless, PSAs would become the Future of Iraq Project's recommendation for the fledgling Iraqi government. According to the Financial Times, "many in the group" fought for the contract structure; a Kurdish delegate told the FT, "everybody keeps coming back to PSAs."

Of course, the plans for Iraq's legal framework for oil have to be viewed in the context of the overall transformation of the Iraqi economy. Clearly, the idea was to pursue a radical corporatist agenda during the period of the Coalition Provisional Authority when the U.S. occupation forces were a de facto dictatorship. And that's just what happened; under L. Paul Bremer, the CPA head, corporate taxes were slashed, a flat-tax on income was established, rules allowing multinationals to pull all of their profits from the country and a series of other provisions were enacted. These were then integrated into the Iraqi Constitution and remain in effect today.

Among the provisions in the Constitution, unlike those of most oil producers, is a requirement that the government "develop oil and gas wealth … relying on the most modern techniques of market principles and encouraging investment." The provision mandates that foreign companies would receive a major stake in Iraq's oil for the first time in the 30 years since the sector was nationalized in 1975.

Herbert Docena, a researcher with the NGO Focus on the Global South, wrote that an early draft of the constitution negotiated by Iraqis envisioned a "Scandinavian-style welfare system in the Arabian desert, with Iraq's vast oil wealth to be spent upholding every Iraqi's right to education, health care, housing, and other social services." "Social justice," the draft declared, "is the basis of building society."

What happened between that earlier draft and the constitution that Iraqis would eventually ratify? According to Docena:


While [U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay] Khalilzad and his team of U.S. and British diplomats were all over the scene, some members of Iraq's constitutional committee were reduced to bystanders. One Shiite member grumbled, "We haven't played much of a role in drafting the constitution. We feel that we have been neglected." A Sunni negotiator concluded: "This constitution was cooked up in an American kitchen not an Iraqi one."

With a constitution cooked up in D.C., the stage was set for foreign multinationals to assume effective control of as much as 87 percent of Iraq's oil, according to projections by the Oil Ministry. If PSAs become the law of the land -- and there are other contractual arrangements that would allow private companies to invest in the sector without giving them the same degree of control or such usurious profits -- the war-torn country stands to lose up to 194 billion vitally important dollars in revenue on just the first 12 fields developed, according to a conservative estimate by Platform (the estimate assumes oil at $40 per barrel; at this writing it stands at more than $59). That's more than six times the country's annual budget.

To complete the rip-off, the occupying coalition would have to crush Iraqi resistance, make sure it had friendly people in the right places in Iraq's emerging elite and lock the new Iraqi government onto a path that would lead to the Big Four's desired outcome.

See part two tomorrow.

Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.

PENTAGON WIDENS ITS BATTLE TO SHAPE NEWS OF IRAQ WAR - DAVID S. CLOUD AND THOM SHANKER (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 3): The Pentagon is reorganizing its public affairs operation in an attempt to influence news coverage, amid internal frustration at the tone and substance of reporting on Iraq and on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world/mi...agewanted=print
SEE ALSO
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...he_surpris.html

LEARNING ABOUT CIVILIAN CASUALTIES - AND HOW WE CAN REDUCE THEIR NUMBER - THEO LIPPMAN JR. (BALTIMORE SUN, NOVEMBER 5): Whatever the true number of civilian casualties of war in Iraq is, everyone knows it's a lot. Civilian casualties have been routine and often huge in modern warfare.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

WHOSE IDEA WAS THIS?: THE ARMY TRIES TO SEND A SOLDIER CONVICTED OF ABUSE AT ABU GHRAIB BACK TO IRAQ -- TO TRAIN IRAQI POLICE - ADAM ZAGAORIN (TIME, NOVEMBER 5)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1555126,00.html

U.S. ENVOY TO IRAQ LIKELY QUITTING POST - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 6): Zalmay Khalilzad, the plainspoken dealmaker and Republican insider who has won praise and criticism for attempts to broker Sunni political participation in Iraq's fragile government, is likely to quit his post as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad in the coming months.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-I...agewanted=print

DEATH SENTENCE SPLITS IRAQ; U.S. POLITICAL FALLOUT: GOP HOPES VERDICT WILL HELP ITS CHANCES; DEMS SAY IT WON'T - EDWARD EPSTEIN (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, NOVEMBER 6)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable

SADDAM'S GUILTY VERDICT: BUSH'S BIG, ANTICLIMACTIC, PRE-ELECTION SURPRISE - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEW, SF GATE, NOVEMBER 6)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...&entry_id=10601

NOVEMBER SURPRISE, THE SEQUEL - TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, NOVEMBER 6): Are we really surprised? The Saddam Hussein verdict, scheduled for October 16 and then suddenly delayed last month (supposedly because the Iraqi special tribunal needed more time) to November 6, the last news cycle before the US midterm election, has now come in and the former dictator (and monster) has been found guilty.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=136878

FRONTIER JUSTICE FOR SADDAM - ETHAN HEITNER (TOMPAINE.COM, NOVEMBER 6)
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/0..._for_saddam.php

HOLLOW VICTORY: THE HANGING OF SADDAM - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, NOVEMBER 7): The hanging of Saddam is not likely to resolve the internal strife that is tearing apart Iraq as a society and as a polity.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK07Ak01.html

HOW NOT TO DAMN SADDAM - STEVE NEGUS (FINANCIAL TIMES, NOVEMBER 5): The chances that Saddam's trial will be a model for the future or aid national reconciliation are slight.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8bb0e8e6-6cf0-11db...00779e2340.html

THE SADDAM HUSSEIN VERDICT - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 6): In Mr. Hussein's sentence to death by hanging, Iraq got neither the full justice nor the full fairness it deserved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/opinion/...agewanted=print

VERDICT DEEPENS IRAQ'S SECTARIAN DIVIDE - (DAILY TELEGRAPH, NOVEMBER 5)
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5001028,00.html

SADDAM HUSSEIN DEATH SENTENCE A MILESTONE: SHIITES AND KURDS PRAISED THE VERDICT HANDED DOWN BY THE IRAQI HIGH TRIBUNAL SUNDAY - SCOTT PETERSON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 6)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1106/p01s01-woiq.html

CRIMINAL AGAINST HUMANITY - L. PAUL BREMER (WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 6): The decision by Iraq's Special Tribunal to convict Saddam Hussein of some 150 murders is a welcome step on Iraq's painful journey toward its more hopeful future.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1162...1088913979.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

VERDICT FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN: LIKE THE NEW POLITICAL ORDER AROUND IT, THE TRIAL WAS MESSY, COSTLY AND DIVISIVE -- BUT THE JUDGMENT IS JUST - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 6)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500787_pf.html

SADDAM HUSSEIN: GUILTY - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 6): >From the famous moment that joyous crowds celebrated the toppling of Hussein's statue in 2003, Iraqis have waited for justice. Now they have it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed

THE RECKONING OF THE DEAD: SADDAM HUSSEIN'S COMING END - JOSEPH MORRISON SKELLY (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6): The execution of Saddam Hussein will deliver justice in its full measure.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDBlZ...zNhNTE3MTdlYzc=

JUSTICE SERVED: SADDAM HUSSEIN'S VERDICT - AN NRO SYMPOSIUM (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODk5N...zc5YmU4Yjk2YWQ=

JUSTICE FOR SADDAM: BUT HE REMAINS THE FACE OF OUR ENEMY IN IRAQ - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, NOVEMBER 6): Justice for Saddam is one admirable legacy of the American sacrifice in Iraq. But to make it permanent, the U.S. must also defeat the insurgency that battles on in Saddam's name.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110009205

THIS IS PROGRESS: THE COURT SPEAKS IN THE CASE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN - MICHAEL NOVAK (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6): The trial of Saddam Hussein deserves to go down in the history of democracy in the Middle East as a milestone event.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjU1Y...WU0ODNlYjg0MTQ=

THE VERDICT IS IN - EDITORS (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 6): Whatever his mistakes in implementation, President Bush made the right choice, with the result that the Middle East and the world will forever be free of Saddam's menace.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWI3Z...TBjZThmMjAzODE=

THROW THE TRUTHINESS BUMS OUT - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 5): And always, always there's the false reality imposed on Iraq: "Absolutely, we're winning!" in the president's recent formulation.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

HOW BUSH CODDLES IRAQIS AND COWS AMERICANS - WILLIAM SALETAN (SLATE, NOVEMBER 2): A government that spends tens of billions of dollars to prop up able-bodied people, year after year with no deadline for self-sufficiency, breeds dependency. That's what Bush has done in Iraq.
http://www.slate.com/id/2152774/?nav=tap3

A FORGOTTEN STRATEGY FOR EXITING IRAQ: EVEN WHILE FIGHT GOES ON, GIVE DIPLOMACY A CHANCE - JOHN ARQUILLA (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, NOVEMBER 5): Talking about peace, even while still fighting, is better than either continuing a war without hope or simply surrendering the Iraqis to a perpetually bloody future.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...ING05M43PT1.DTL

AND NOW, BACK TO THE WAR: SOME SEE PULLOUT SHORTENING CONFLICT - SEBASTIAN MALLABY (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 6): When Iraq's combatants fight themselves to stalemate, some coalition of external powers may have to enforce a peace, and the United States would probably be part of such an effort.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500773_pf.html

WHAT BAKER SHOULD TELL BUSH - JOE KLEIN (TIME, NOVEMBER 5): In Iraq, democracy must take a backseat to the restoration of order.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1555118,00.html

MASS IRAQ VIOLENCE OUTCOME OF US DIVIDE AND RULE POLICIES - SALIM LONE (COMMON DREAMS, NOVEMBER 5): The Americans and the British are now reviled by Shi'a and Sunni alike; their exit should not be negotiable.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1105-20.htm

NO THIRD WAY IN IRAQ: 'REDEPLOYMENT' WILL NOT 'INCENTIVIZE' THE IRAQI MILITARY. IT WILL LEAD TO ITS COLLAPSE - FREDERICK W. KAGAN (WEEKLY STANDARD, NOVEMBER 13): The pullback of U.S. forces to their bases will not reduce the sectarian conflict, which their presence did not generate. It will increase it.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/902lfnxh.asp

BREAKING IRAQ APART: PARTITIONING IRAQ MAY SOUND LIKE AN EXIT STRATEGY. BUT IT IGNORES THE REALITIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST - JUAN COLE (MERCURY NEWS, NOVEMBER 5)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...al/15935571.htm

TOP TEN WAYS WE KNOW WE HAVE LOST IN IRAQ - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, NOVEMBER 4)
http://www.juancole.com/2006/11/top-ten-wa...ve-lost-in.html

WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO END WAR - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, NOVEMBER 6): Can we admit that the loss of honor will not come with how the Iraq war ends, because we lost our honor when we began it? This time, can we accept defeat?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...end_war?mode=PF

A WARTIME LOVE STORY - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 5): The neocons insist that it was the execution of the war that was wrong. Actually, it was wrong to go to war with a trumped-up casus belli and without ever debating what could happen if they took a baseball bat to a beehive.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

TWO TALES OF WAR: READ 'EM AND WEEP - COLBERT I. KING (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 4): How in the world could we be reliving a nightmare like Vietnam in Iraq?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301373_pf.html